The announcement of the scholarship comes ahead of the fifth anniversary of Miss Kercher's murder, which happened on Nov 1, 2007.

"The city wants to honour Meredith, whose memory is now inextricably linked with Perugia, so it is right to have a scholarship in her name," said Wladimiro Boccali, the mayor.

Prosecutors claimed that the Leeds University student had been killed during a drug-fuelled, frenzied sex attack by Miss Knox, Mr Sollecito and a third attacker, a local drifter named Rudy Guede.

Guede, originally from Ivory Coast, is serving a 16-year sentence – reduced on appeal from 30 years – and is the only person in jail for the crime.

The convictions of Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito were thrown out by an appeals court in Perugia last October, with the judges and jury deciding that the DNA evidence and witness testimony used to convict them was unreliable.

Mr Sollecito recently published a book on the case and Miss Knox is writing one in her home town of Seattle.